Ashgabat

Surely you know what Ashgabat is and where the city is located. Of course everyone can say that Ashgabat is the capital of Turkmenistan, which is somewhere near Uzbekistan. You can also remember that Ashgabat is the capital of the famous Turkmen gas, which will soon be used by almost all of Europe. And then, what then? A person who does not live in Turkmenistan has never been there and has never thought of visiting the country, at least not as a tourist, to say more about the city or the country in general. Therefore, you have the opportunity to learn as much about Ashgabat as you need to take an interest and maybe even fall a little bit in love with this unknown city, which was closed to the rest of the world for a long time.

The city is also an important administrative and political, industrial, scientific and cultural center of the state. It is located in the south of the country in the foothills of the Kopetdag Mountains in the Turan plain, close to the border with Iran; it is on the same latitude as Athens, Seoul and San Francisco.

Strange as it may seem, despite all the importance the city represents today, Ashgabat cannot boast of its ancient rich history. Sometimes one can even get the impression that the area where it was located in ancient times has absolutely nothing to do with the state to which it belonged. It cannot be compared with such ancient monuments of Turkmenistan as Merv, Kunya Urgench or Nisa, which were once important centers of states created here by powerful ruling dynasties. The Shahs built these cities in the style that they themselves preferred and under whose guidance the outstanding architects of the East created the great architectural monuments of the Middle Ages. Dynasties of the Khorezmshakhs, Timurids and Sasanids lived and died within their walls and forever immortalized not only their name but also the name of the city, as the results of numerous archaeological studies prove.

However, all these important and interesting events have nothing to do with the modern capital of Turkmenistan. The situation with this city is much easier.